Sonny Blount

This is so exciting – really looking forward to the game against France. France will be much more physical and committed against us but if our forward pack steps up then we have the all round game to put up points…

Satantango

Yes, bring it on I say. Redemption time is right. That quarter-final was 8 years ago, and it is 6 years since we last lost to France. While they will lift their game when they play us, we have too much fire-power and depth. Confident of a win. TAB/Betfair think so too. always follow the money.

Rowan

WineOh

@ Michael. The ABs seem sorely undercooked this year, and sporting way too many handling errors that a half-decent opposition will capitalise on, weak under the high ball and no fight at the break-down. I’d love for our ABs to win, no team has ever done back-to-back RWC crowns. Australia are the team to beat in the competition, they proved it by beating us in the Tri-Nations. My underdog heart goes to Wales, but they have been hit by so many injuries that they don’t really have a chance of making the final.

Richard

Fisiani

The team that wins their next three games wins the cup. That simple. Three lots of 80 minutes. No team has ever won 2 World Cups in a row. Forget the past, the ifs and the buts. Let’s hope the All Blacks win their next three games. They can.

Colville

Ireland lost 3 front line players including their Captain, and probably O’Brien to be banned for punching.
Argentina will pummel them in my view.

France looked pretty dire. Failed to secure ball, inside backs didnt tackle, outside backs dont know how to attack, and that was up against Ireland who are hardly known for being big try scorers.

Still it will be a nervous game for all NZers 🙂

Edit.
Fisiani.
Its irrelevant that we won the last one just as its irrelevant what we did last year. As you say its about what is done on the pitch in the next 3 games. ABs are favorites but certainly no where near certainties!

Dave Mann

virtualmark

Ireland played very very well. They are a different team to the Ireland of old.

France didn’t really turn up to this game. I suspect that’s because they knew they were already through to the quarter finals.

But you have to expect France will totally turn up to the next game. I doubt they will have any problem motivating themselves to play the All Blacks in a World Cup knock-out match. The good news is I expect the All Blacks will be totally motivated to exorcise some World Cup ghosts of their own.

My prediction is 3 of the 4 quarter-finals will actually be dull games that go to form. And NZ vs France will be a cracker knock-em-down drag-em-out game.

waikatogirl

Well done Ireland, they played well is morning. The Irish crowds were having a great time too, came to have a party and won the game as well.
My heart went out to the guy who snapped his hamstring. Just one of those rugby injuries but a real bugger for him.

The French rugby team, love em and hate em! If they play with passion, as they can, the AB’s are going to have a tough time winning. However, I have faith in our team which is much stronger and better prepared. Last time, the AB’s kind of assumed they had the game in the bag.

Rowan

NZ should have replaced Woodcock with Nepo Laulala rather than Joe Moody, Laulala was very unlucky not to be in the original squad and offers quite a bit more than Moody, here’s hoping Moody is not required to play. Hopefully big croc will step up this week and not get heavily penalised at which he has done at times in the past.
If say Aaron or Ben Smith or DC goes down come the semis I’d say we would be toast, the rest of the team is somewhat more replaceable! If Sopoaga was there (as he should have been) we would have a reasonable alternative to DC at ten, instead be have Barrett who is very good as an impact player but thankfully not required to start and Slade who is even less convincing than his predecessor Donald!!

Michael

Personally I don’t see France as a threat. They haven’t played all that well in my opinion.
I still reckon it will be a New Zealand v Australia final as those two teams are the two best teams, IMHO.
Australia have only beaten New Zealand once recently so I reckon they have to be the underdogs if both those teams make the final.

WineOh

Longknives

“Personally I don’t see France as a threat. They haven’t played all that well in my opinion.”

Good Grief- let the arrogant rubbishing of France by the All Black fans and media begin eh?
The fact that they are out of form is the whole freaking point about France being a danger! Were you watching in 1999? 2007? 2011??

Michael

The French would have wanted to beat Ireland so that they could have played Argentina and not New Zealand. They never looked likely. I reckon New Zealand will win by 10 points or more.
The last time New Zealand played Australia they thrashed them . If it comes to a New Zealand v Australia final as I have predicted
[ and my predictions have been spot on so far ] then I believe New Zealand will win, but not by the same margin as they won by when they last played them.

Michael

Longknives

“The French would have wanted to beat Ireland so that they could have played Argentina and not New Zealand. They never looked likely ”

Are you new to watching the French Rugby team? Might I remind you NZ comfortably beat them in Pool Play in the last World Cup and they then lost to Tonga! Every arrogant All Black fan was mocking their chances and predicting a cricket score in the 2011 Final..
The French are a different beast in one-off games with their backs against the wall..History tells us this. Take your Black eyepatch off and prepare for a mighty tough match..

Longknives

Michael- You keep beating your chest, crowing about your ‘expertise’ and telling us your predictions have been ‘Spot On’..
Long way to go mate! By the way-You really picked Japan to beat South Africa??

Longknives

Kimbo

@ Longknives

I also think The French lost twice to Argentina in the 2007 World Cup?

Yep, the opening match, and then in the 3rd/4th play off match…after they (France) had lost rather insipidly to England in their semi. So that was 3 games France lost at RWC – a tournament they hosted! But they lasted longer than us!

Never, never, never count anything as a given, especially in knock out rugby, most especially when it is France

WineOh

“The last time New Zealand played Australia they thrashed them”

The Aussies put their ‘B’ team on the field that day, and didn’t really care because they already clinched the shortened Rugby Championship comp. Their loose-forwards put us to the sword at the breakdown the first time where they beat us soundly.

Then I predicted that South Africa would beat Wales and still do.
That New Zealand would beat France, and still do.
That Ireland would beat Argentina. Not so sure about that result seeing as Ireland have lost some of their best players.
That Australia would beat Scotland, and still do.

Michael

Longknives

The TAB must be shaking in their boots when you walk in the door Michael!
And thanks Nostradamus- The rest of us can now cancel our Sky subscriptions and save some money now that you have told us how this is all going to pan out..

WineOh

Kimbo

@ Michael

Just a reminder.
Here is my prediction….

Michael, I don’t mean to be flippant, but I’m actually focused on watching and enjoying the rugby as sporting contests, and roothsaying/chicken entrail reading/clairvoyance concerning the results is not really the contest I, nor even most are interested in.

But if you want to host a party for the All Blacks France quarter final and regale us with your predictive skills, while we sup on the beer purchased from the enormous sums you won picking that Springboks vs Japan result…I’m game.

NZ should have replaced Woodcock with Nepo Laulala rather than Joe Moody

I disagree completely Rowan. Laulala is a specialist tighthead prop. Woodcock is a specialist loosehead, as is Joe Moody. To bring in Laulala would have left the All Blacks with Crockett as the only loosehead specialist. The selectors are simply replacing like for like.

Longknives

To be fair Michael picking the All Blacks were going to finish top of their Pool was a pretty freakishly good prediction! I’m sure nobody in their right minds would have picked that..
So Michael/Nostradamus if you could- Would you be so kind as to tell me the first four home (in correct order if possible) in Saturday’s Caulfield Cup? It would be greatly appreciated…

Colville

mikenmild

Does anyone know if the failures by Samoa, Tonga and Fiji have any impact on qualifying for RWC 2019? Four teams from Oceania qualified automatically this time: NZ, Australia, Samoa and Tonga, with Fiji then winning the Oceania qualifying tournament. How many slots would Oceania get next time round?

Kimbo

Blair.
Betfair will give you 19/5 so $50 would get you $240 if you won. (which you wont ? )

I’ve heard professional gamblers say they don’t touch rugby with a 40-foot barge pole, as it is too referee-driven and therefore unpredictable.

However, they are also on the look-out for “value bets”. A proposed wager may not be on the favourite, but nonetheless the pay-out price for the reasonable possibility of a dividend makes it worthwhile, win or lose (because if you accumulate a lot of those, in the long run you win).

So that sounds like a good value bet to me. I would expect France to beat the All Blacks at least one time in 5. Conversely, why would you want to bet on the All Blacks, and risk your stake for the uncertain likelihood of a relatively low return? Unless you are a patriot…in which case, contrary to initial appearances, you are not really primarily betting for the money, but the emotional reward.

pdm

Having just flicked through the comments I may weell have missed some informed comment about South Africa. The Japan game excepted they have impressed me with their only obvious weakness being the lack of a McCaw/Pocock/Hooper type loosie.

If we get past France and that is no certainty the Yarpies are going to be a real challenge.

Zapper

Anyone saying France would rather play us than Argentina is crazy. Because to win the world cup you need to do more than win a quarter final. Would they really have preferred to have to face NZ/SA/Aus (based on likely results, I know anything can happen) in 3 weeks? I think we’ll beat them, although I’m obviously pretty nervous. But I would put my house on France not beating NZ/SA/Aus back to back to back. Especially this French team who don’t look flash, so may have one miracle performance in them but not 3.

Kimbo

@ pdm

Having just flicked through the comments I may weell have missed some informed comment about South Africa. The Japan game excepted they have impressed me with their only obvious weakness being the lack of a McCaw/Pocock/Hooper type loosie.

If we get past France and that is no certainty the Yarpies are going to be a real challenge.

Dead right!

They beat us last year (and the games at Ellis Park in 2013 and 2015 were beauties, too that went right down to the wire)…and I seem to recall that historically they are our toughest foe who beat us in 1995 when no one gave them a chance.

And then it could be Aussie in the final!

There may have been a “pool of death”, but now the chips have fallen where they may, we have the “run home of death”. France-South Africa-Australia: Beat that lot and you sure deserve to be crowned the World cup champions!

Michael

All joking aside, I’m not a betting man myself.
But I thought the winners and runner up’s in each of the pools where virtually a shoe in, once England lost to Wales. The only tricky one was Pool D but I thought Ireland were the better bet to win that one.
Of course it gets harder from now on , but I reckon South Africa should beat Wales, New Zealand will beat France, Ireland v Argentina, could go either way, and Australia should have no problem beating Scotland.
So I expect to get 11 out of 12 of my first 12 predictions correct and with a bit of luck 12 out of 12.

Rowan

KS
Ben Franks is a a swingman and can play at loosehead equally as well as tighthead. I expect that he will be covering the role from the bench this week and Moody only to feature if another prop goes down, and assuming that we are still in the tournament.
France should target the scrum in the absence of Woodcock and also our rookie winger (assuming that will be N-MS)

Rowan

It would be interesting to be up against Australia, probably won’t happen before the final assuming we both get there. They beat us easily in the game in Aussie and likewise the return game in NZ was equally one sided the other way. Would have to say that they are better prepared for the knockouts given the ‘pool of death’ vs our soft pool in which the Abs were not particulary convincing. Aussies certainly playing the better rugby at the mo but yesterday is history so need to put in the performance on the day.

SPC

Discount Wales and Ireland as contenders to win it all because of loss of players but South Africa and Argentina can still take nothing for granted in a one off game. France are a different team once the group stage ends and will be more difficult this week. Only Oz can be confident of going through to the semi-finals.

Duxton

Duxton

I think there’s far too much being made about the ‘history’ of All Black vs France games – especially with respect to 2007.

France didn’t play better than us that day. They won because Wayne Barnes let them get away with murder all game: both tries came from clear forward passes, and they (France) committed something like 42 offences in the second half that should have been penalties or free kicks to NZ. remember that the IRB apologise to the All Blacks in writing after the game, and acknowledged that poor refereeing had been the main factor in the outcome.

The jury is still out at the whether Barnes was simply too inexperienced for that game (he had only refereed seven tests before the 2007 World Cup, and had been picked for that on the assumption that Argentina, and not France, would be facing NZ), or he cheated. I tend towards the latter, simply because it seems inconceivable that a referee could be that incompetent.

It’s appears that the refereeing options for the QFs are Barnes, Nigel Owens, Craig Joubert, and a couple of Frogs. Joubert and Owens can’t referee SA vs Wales, and the Frogs can’t referee NZ vs France. So it is likely that we will have Nigel Owens, who is highly respected by the All Blacks.

Rowan

Nostalgia-NZ

So far the ABs have shown the ability to pick up the pace with their reserves coming on, it’s probably overlooked that when they do lift momentum it’s right across the board – that goes in the tight as well as in the backs. It’s a finely balanced team at the moment and despite the signals from the coaches about who are in the top team it’s clear they view the whole squad as a single unit to chose from come game day. Fekietoa has been tidy on the wing and in the centres, so too Sam Cane at 7 – he’s finely tuned to replace Richie at the drop of a hat without a beat missing in the team, the props and middle row likewise and there are 2 great replacements at no 8, McCaw and Vito. This is a high powered unit that will be difficult to break down.

SPC

pdm

Nostalgia – I suspect that Feketoa and Cane will not even make it to the bench. If he doesn’t start SBW must be on the bench because he is the only AB back who runs straight and makes space for his supporting players – he and Feketoa are competing for the same spot. Cane will only be on the bench if there is still doubt about McCaws fitness as they must cover lock against the French – with Vito probably having the running as loose forward cover.